No one starts a business to simply volunteer their time and resources. Your website may be the finest one out there, but if you’re not selling, something somewhere is not clicking with the potential customers who browse your site.
Many merchants focus on increasing traffic thinking that if more people visit their site, they will consequently sell more. Though this thinking is not entirely wrong – more visitors does increase the likelihood of selling – it is unrealistic to believe that 20% more visitors will translate in a 20% increase in sales.
Before working on increasing traffic therefore, you need to make sure everything about your current site moves visitors to act.
Before delving more into this, if you are new to e-commerce, I urge you to read the article “12 Basic Tips for E-Commerce Newcomers” which provides essential marketing advice to attract and retain customers.
And now, here are 7 strategies to increase your business’ conversion rate and make sure your visitors become loyal customers.
Your target customer must be clearly defined and you must always have it in mind when executing your marketing plan.
Some businesses build several user types, or personas, with different personalities, yet with common motives, preferences, and behavior patterns which as a group represent the brand’s target audience. Other businesses only work with one target customer type on which all their marketing decisions will be based.
In any case, whether you create new content, new pages, or new product pages, ALL should be done with that target customer type or group in mind.
All advertisers know that humans are emotional beings. One may think he is making a rational purchase, but really what lead him to this brand, this website, this product, or this particular business will be driven in large part by emotions: desire, urgency, joy, love, and so on.
No matter what your content is – blog posts, social media posts, advertisement, promotional offers, item descriptions, etc. – what you write must engage your target customer. Choice of words is therefore crucial.
Use few words
The more your message is clear, direct, and simple, the more likely you are to draw the attention of users. The Internet is a fast-moving world. You may only have a split-second to engage a customer. Choose words appropriate to your target customer
Depending on such factors as gender, age, or social profile, some people or customer types react better to positive wording.
For example, here are two sentences:
Both sentences have the exact same message: these shoes are comfortable and will make hiking so much more enjoyable. The difference is the first phrase uses negative wording (“sore”) and the shoes are not portrayed as belonging to the customer. However, in the second phrase, the tone is affirmative, the wording is positive (“pure pleasure”), the benefits are highlighted (‘mind and spirit’) and the shoes already belong to the customer.
Other customers, depending on the message we want to convey, or their type, may react more to negative wording or even fear.
There are no magic words. It is really important to fit with the ‘persona’. One thing is sure: don’t choose words at random. Consider the emotional reaction your wording will provoke.
Choose words that will encourage buying
Words such as ‘FREE, OFFER, GIFT, RECEIVE, NEW, SAVE, BENEFIT, QUICKLY, ONLY’ are just a few examples.
These types of words give the customer the impression that we’re giving him something or that he will miss out if he doesn’t quickly take advantage of the offer.
These are the types of words you want to be using in your ads, on your sites, and social media accounts. |
Let’s take another example:
You are in a shopping mall with hundreds of outlets. A product on sale grabs your attention in a window. You decide to walk in.
Inside the store, an employee is busy stocking the shelves. He doesn’t even notice you coming in. You try to find the product on sale, but to no avail. Eventually, you find the product. The employee finally acknowledges your presence but doesn’t reach out.
It turns out the product is not marked down as the promotion indicated. You decide to ask about it and the employee tells you the price is right. The promotion ended yesterday but the manager hadn’t had the time to take down the display.
I’ll bet you will swiftly walk out of the shop empty-handed and chances are you will never go back there.
Why would it be any different in a web store?
- Your product images must be good quality and we should be able to see the product through different angles, maybe even zooming in on the product details.
- A customer must also be able to visualize variations of products through images.
- A product’s measurements, weights, and dimensions must be clearly specified.
- The “Buy Now” button must be easy to find and simple. This is not the time to try and be original. Simple is efficient.
Your website visitor may have landed on your product page directly through a link that you published, and not necessarily through your homepage. It’s very likely that he is not familiar with your brand at all. NEVER neglect your product pages! |
To improve the conversion rate, you must make sure the steps that lead your customers to finalize their purchase are as simple as possible.
At the final stage of payment, I advise against requiring the user to create an account in order to complete the purchase. Don’t risk losing the sale… Alternately, give them the choice.
Be careful not to ask too much information about your customer. You can always obtain more information later by other means, such as a newsletter subscription.
In other words, if the customer is ready to pay, let him pay! Don’t distract him with non-essential questions…
Your branding must be carefully crafted so that customers come to recognize your logo, your style, and your tone.
Of course, you want to stand out from the crowd, but remember to be consistent in everything you do. There should be no disconnect in style between your social media posts, website, newsletters or anything else you publish.
That sounds obvious, but this is a necessary reminder. In the above example of the store, the employee was not concerned with the needs of the customer. Don’t make the same mistake.
Lastly, here are a few interesting software options that can help optimize your conversion rates:
Hotjar is awesome because it allows to survey customers, to understand their journey on a website, and see what we can’t notice from our vantage point as a web entrepreneur. Since we are seldom the target customer for our website, this software helps us to better understand how our target customer thinks.
Usertesting.com is another handy software! It allows you to enter your target customer profile – say, a 35-year old woman that loves animals – and to ask X number of people corresponding exactly to this profile to execute different tasks on your website. The people will execute the required task while recording their screen and voice so that you can see and hear what they think and how they find their experience.
You will be surprised by the results! Many e-tailers tend to build sites that match their preferences instead of building it according to the preferences of their target customers. Usertesting.com helps to correct this tendency and to see if the website structure hits the target or not. This is a MUST to improve all online stores.
In conclusion, don’t hesitate to use such tools as Google Analytics in order to help you understand where and when you lose customers. Beyond statistics though, think HUMAN:
How about you? What advice would you give to improve sales? Want to share an experience with our readers on the topic? Don’t hesitate to add your comments below!